Native Arsenic (old, rare - Shield Flynn Coll.)

Item Description

VERY RARE, old-time nearly solid specimen of gray massive Native Arsenic from an unknown area in either Silesia, Poland or Silesia, Czech Republic. One side of the mounded piece has a crust. Most of Silesia is today in Poland with a bit in the Czech Republic and in Germany. Silesia was part of Germany from 1742 until the end of World War I. This rich and rare old-timer undoubtedly dates to prior to World War I and is probably from today's Polish area of Silesia. There are NO photographic examples of Native Arsenic in either the Polish or Czech areas of Silesia in MINDAT. Ex Shields Flynn Collection. Not pretty to look at, but still a historic rarity for the locale. NOTE ADDED courtesy of Martin Held: 

Looking at the label, my interpretation would rather be that it originates from the Harz region. ‘Dudelstadt’ has not been a town with a German name in Silesia in history (neither on the today CZ or Polish site which had been German until after WW II). Names would have changed after 1945.

I would rather think that the location is Duderstadt (with an ‘r’ instead of the ‘l’, today part of the county Goettingen in Lower Saxony) which had been a administrative center in the 19^th century overseeing the Harz region. So I may interpret Silesia as (Lower) Saxony. Native arsenic originating from that region and with that shape would be more likely to me.